What is this cloud that people are talking about which stores data and programs? The term, cloud, is actually a metaphor for the Internet. As students, storing in the cloud is a really great alternative to saving documents and applications on your computer’s hard drive. Some examples of universal cloud storage systems you can use is Box, Dropbox, iStorage, or even FreeDrive. Box is available to University of Illinois students for free and is a great choice when choosing a cloud storage management system.